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Chapter 3. Fascist crises

Shakespeare, ‘thou art mighty yet!’

Abstract

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was a play that Italian Fascism accurately exploited during various transitions in the history of its regime. Although in many respects a difficult play, full of thorny ambiguities for Fascist ideology, it offered good possibilities for propaganda, if appositely manipulated, at least until the Ethiopian Empire was proclaimed. This chapter contends that Shakespeare’s fortune with Fascism coincides with some of the most critical phases in the transformation and establishment of Fascist power between 1924–1925 and 1939. It also argues that although after the 1935 Maxentius production, and the 1936 Genoa performance of Malipiero’s opera drawn from Julius Caesar, its fortune suddenly dropped, the play continued to haunt the Italian stages. It became the ‘Stone Guest’ of other subsequent Italian Caesar plays which sought to erase its memory in order to contribute to new propaganda trends. By also exploring practices of manipulation and censorial excision, the essay discusses how Shakespeare offered at the time the litmus test of critical moments in the history of the Fascist regime.

Abstract

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was a play that Italian Fascism accurately exploited during various transitions in the history of its regime. Although in many respects a difficult play, full of thorny ambiguities for Fascist ideology, it offered good possibilities for propaganda, if appositely manipulated, at least until the Ethiopian Empire was proclaimed. This chapter contends that Shakespeare’s fortune with Fascism coincides with some of the most critical phases in the transformation and establishment of Fascist power between 1924–1925 and 1939. It also argues that although after the 1935 Maxentius production, and the 1936 Genoa performance of Malipiero’s opera drawn from Julius Caesar, its fortune suddenly dropped, the play continued to haunt the Italian stages. It became the ‘Stone Guest’ of other subsequent Italian Caesar plays which sought to erase its memory in order to contribute to new propaganda trends. By also exploring practices of manipulation and censorial excision, the essay discusses how Shakespeare offered at the time the litmus test of critical moments in the history of the Fascist regime.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part 1. Identity crises
  7. Chapter 1. 1916 25
  8. Chapter 2. Waiting for Caesar 51
  9. Chapter 3. Fascist crises 95
  10. Part 2. Power games and the crisis of history
  11. Chapter 4. “A great crisis of identification and understanding of reality” 149
  12. Chapter 5. Allegorising and minoritising Richard III 175
  13. Part 3. Crises of representation
  14. Chapter 6. Notes on Shakespeare, simulacra, and the aporias of ‘acting’ 215
  15. Chapter 7. Narrating and unravelling Italian crises through Shakespeare (2000–2016) 245
  16. Afterword 277
  17. Index of Names 283
  18. Index of Subjects 291
Shakespeare and Crisis
This chapter is in the book Shakespeare and Crisis
https://doi.org/10.1075/sec.2.03big

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part 1. Identity crises
  7. Chapter 1. 1916 25
  8. Chapter 2. Waiting for Caesar 51
  9. Chapter 3. Fascist crises 95
  10. Part 2. Power games and the crisis of history
  11. Chapter 4. “A great crisis of identification and understanding of reality” 149
  12. Chapter 5. Allegorising and minoritising Richard III 175
  13. Part 3. Crises of representation
  14. Chapter 6. Notes on Shakespeare, simulacra, and the aporias of ‘acting’ 215
  15. Chapter 7. Narrating and unravelling Italian crises through Shakespeare (2000–2016) 245
  16. Afterword 277
  17. Index of Names 283
  18. Index of Subjects 291
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